Digital BW, The Print

Can any one give me some advice on Black and White printing. I am 
pretty new to B&W digital printing, and can not believe how 
difficult it appears to be. I have spent a great deal of time trying 
to get neutral tones using my Epson R300 without a lot of success.
There is always a colour cast, usually magenta.
I am using standard Epson cartridges and a number of different 
papers to no avail. (I have used printer profiles on some which 
hasn't seemed to help) 
I was then given an Epson 1290 to try, and when I tried it, it was 
horrendous. The black and white prints had such a colour cast, they 
looked like colour!
My questions are 
1. Can I make neutral high quality B&W prints with either of these 
printers, and if so, how.
2. If the answer to 1 is no, then what is a reasonably inexpensive 
way to achieve the above.

And please try to keep the responses fairly simple, I am pretty new 
to this game.

Thanks in anticipation.

Keith